Rankin Inlet MLA prepared to challenge cabinet

PATRICIA D’SOUZA

Rankin Inlet South-Whale Cove MLA Manitok Thompson, who is also the minister of community government and transportation, said this week she’s prepared to challenge her colleagues in cabinet to protect her constituents.

Rankin Inlet residents who work for the petroleum products division (PPD) of the department of public works and services fear their jobs will be “decentralized” to Baker Lake as a result of a cabinet decision to merge the division with the Nunavut Power Corporation.

The merger is part of the creation of a new Crown corporation called Qulliq Fuel Corporation, which would take over the duties of PPD. NPC’s responsibilities for the purchasing, storage and transportation of fuel would also be transferred to Qulliq Fuel.

The problem is that PPD’s office is in Rankin Inlet, while NPC’s office is in Baker Lake.

During a meeting in Rankin in mid-October, PPD employees were informed of the decision to merge the two entities. On Oct. 28, Thompson received a letter from a group of employees who feared their jobs may be transferred to Baker — a decision that would force them either to move or quit.

“My constituents are not happy about that,” Thompson said in an interview this week. “I will oppose this to the end.”

PPD was decentralized to Rankin Inlet before the creation of Nunavut, she said. “We spent a lot of money training beneficiaries to take on the technical nature of those jobs.”

Thompson added that 11 of the 16 employees at PPD are Inuit. Ten are homeowners. And there are 20 children involved.

“I think it is a very successful example of decentralization,” she said. “The reason for decentralization was to train local people and to give them jobs. We have done that already.”

However, in a members’ statement to the legislative assembly on Tuesday, Baker Lake MLA Glenn McLean said his constituents deserve some consideration as well.

“Footprints I and II clearly indicated that Baker Lake would benefit from decentralization,” he said.

“Mr. Speaker, it is no secret that many of those originally promised positions did not materialize. We have now heard reports that a number of positions currently associated with PPD will be decentralized to Baker Lake. Baker Lake welcomes this news with enthusiasm.”

McLean ended his statement on a note that bites at the concerns of residents in the Kivalliq’s regional centre: “There’s over 30 of my constituents living and going to school in Rankin Inlet. And Mr. Speaker, yes, they would like to be home with their families. But unfortunately, they have to travel to Iqaluit to find employment and Rankin Inlet. It’s not a perfect world, but we’re trying to get that way and I think that the first step is with the energy minister.”

Ed Picco, who was named the minister of energy during last month’s sitting of the legislature in Pangnirtung, has made no public statements about requiring PPD employees to move to Baker Lake.

Indeed, it is not clear that such a move would be a necessary part of the government’s creation of Qulliq Fuel.

“Most headquarters divisions in Iqaluit are working with departments decentralized in the territory,” Thompson said. She gave as an example her own portfolio of Sport Nunavut, which has employees in both Igloolik and Baker Lake.

“[PPD employees] can work out of Rankin. It’s just an hour away from Baker Lake.”

David Akeeagot, the GN’s decentralization secretariat and the assistant deputy minister of the department of the executive and intergovernmental affairs said he has been given no instructions to move PPD to Baker Lake.

“We have not received any direction on that,” he said in an interview.

He added that he is not aware of any decentralized department being decentralized a second time, to a different community. PPD has always been part of the government’s numbers on decentralization.

If employees were to be asked to relocate and chose not to, they would be given the option of taking another available position in government or accepting a buyout package.

Still, Thompson continues to keep her constituents updated on the government’s progress, speaking regularly with the hamlet council.

“These are not just secretaries,” she said. “There are finance workers, operations employees, analysts, senior revenue clerks…. We’ve never come across a division that is so fully staffed of Inuit.”